FGF players' portal: the paradise of Java open source games

General Discussions
#1

http://tuer.tuxfamily.org/fgf/fgf_logo.png

Hi!

The time has come to introduce the FGF players’ portal. This application is still under development, the Facebook version is completely stable and the web version is under development. Its aim is to provide lots of games including some excellent 3D games for free that work under Linux, Mac OS X and Windows. They have been made by independent talented developers, not only members or candidates of the FGF. We focus only on open source cross-platform Java games that can be installed by casual users. I had planned to create this portal since 2 years but I haven’t found the time to do it until now. This portal is only a small piece of the global strategy of the FGF. You can submit your game only on the Facebook version because the web version needs some work to be complete.

As you will see, the graphical user interface is ugly but, as the functional part of the application is ready (except login/logout on the web version), I will have some time to improve it. However, I have to precise that almost no functional features will be added in this portal. I want to keep it very simple.

You can find the both versions here:
http://apps.facebook.com/freegamingfoundation/ (facebook version)
http://tuer.tuxfamily.org/fgf/players_portal/index.php (temporary URL)

The aim of this portal is not to compete with more general games portals. As I focus on a very limited category of games with strict criteria, this portal will contain less games and will have a less wide audience than those portals that accept all Java games. This portal is supposed to become a bridge between Java open source programmers and users. As far as I know, the portal is already used by 23 facebook users (the hit count works completely only since a few days and only on the Facebook version).

All authors have received an email to let them know that one of their games has been added. Concentrating on open source games will cause me less problems and almost no legal problems. It does not mean that the authors won’t be respected.

The screenshots are stored on the server after submission instead of deep linking them.

For more information about the rules:
http://tuer.tuxfamily.org/fgf/players_portal/help.php
http://tuer.tuxfamily.org/fgf/players_portal/tos.php

I plan to release the source code of the portal on sourceforge.net after some cleaning and when it is more stable both inside and outside Facebook.

I wish a long life to open source softwares! Java games rock!

P.S: the semi-automatic promotion system is not fully ready. When it is ready, expect a noticeable increase of audience of our games (TUER is on the portal too).

#2

I plan to fully implement the following functional features:

  • a semi-automatic promotion system
  • a login/logout system
  • a kind of API to get a read-only access to FGF databases

I plan to improve the following GUI aspects:

  • a logo
  • some prettier buttons
  • a better browse bar

What do you suggest for the appearance of the browse bar?

#3

Nice to see, that you haven’t lost your interest in promoting your vision. Kudos for this work!

One thing I miss from a glance at the web version is a license statement. You should have a field for every game that states the licence and link it to the license file or a FAQ about that license. Since there are fundamental differences in OpenSource licenses, it would be unfair to lure someone into reusing for e.g. GPLed code, who does not fully understand the consequences.

#4

Yes, you’re right, some french programmers and an administrator of Tuxfamily.org said I should add such a field into the database. I will do this as soon as possible before adding new games and other features as it is very important.

Some games are going to be added into the database:

  • “Fluid Cubed” by Adam L. Davis (under ANSA 2.5 license)
  • “Arabian Flights” by Mike Prosser (it requires some modifications to work correctly)
  • “Gods, into the wonderful” (I need to write a JNLP file for it)
  • “FreeCol” (I need to write a JNLP file for it)

Please can you help me? Could some people test these games under Mac and Windows? I tested them under Linux.

#5

Thank you but don’t forget that, even though I’m alone to program the web portal, I’m not alone when it comes to defend “my” vision or rather our vision (maybe not yours, I don’t know). Some programmers were very happy to learn that their source codes could be useful now.

Be patient, I have modified the database a few minutes ago, it is almost ready ;D

#6

Ok it is done, I can fall asleep. Good night.

#7

Login/logout feature is working. Now, I’m going to improve the buttons and I’m still looking for a logo.

#8

Nice! Looking forward to seeing how this continues!

#9

I have some problems with some games that had been planned to be added because the JARs work but when you use them through Java Webstart, you get a NullPointerException :frowning:

Thank you for the compliment. The website has a surprisingly good success, at least 40 people per day use it but nobody is logged, that is why the figures don’t change. Use the RSS feed if you want to know when new things happen.

#10

A new FPS is going to arrive in a few weeks in the FGF players’ portal. Stay tuned!

#11

looking good.

what sort of things do you still plan to add?

#12

Thanks. When I have some spare time, I will improve the GUI (buttons and logo at least) and finish the semi-automatic promotion system.

#13

You will have to wait for some weeks to see the next FPS as its author needs some time to comment his source code. Nevertheless, Tarotux has been added, the source code is inside the JAR (strange way of doing… I looked for the source code for some weeks).

#14

I have tried to write the semi-automatic promotion system but external connections to my database are not allowed; then I will have to parse the dump files to produce the promotion files, it is a bit more complicated, I don’t want to write it in PHP.

#15

The new FPS I wanted to add into the FGF players’ portal has been repaired one week ago. It is called Tesseract, it has been written by Nicolas Devere. I’m going to add it today.

#16

;D Tesseract is now on the Tome!!! Please test it, we need more feedback. On my view, there is a problem with the mouse handling. Tell me if it works fine for you. There is a strange noise when you leave it, isn’t it? The game has been tested under Mac, Linux and Windows (XP at least). Can someone test under Windows Vista?

http://tuer.tuxfamily.org/facebook/screenshots/tesseract.png

I want to encourage the developer to keep it up. It is a simple game but I think it might become more interesting in the future.

#17

works fine on vista.
I wonder why the movement keys are not wasd (they are drfg!)

#18

The author has wanted to avoid the problems of mapping between AZERTY and QWERTY keyboards. This buttons (DRFG) are exactly at the same position on an AZERTY keyboard and on a QWERTY keyboard. Personally, I prefer my solution (WSAD for QWERTY and an equivalent for AZERTY). Do you succeed in aiming?

#19

yes, I could aim. And I succeeded even more in quickly dying.

#20

Lol. When I use that game, the keyboard works fine but the mouse is extremely slow, I rarely succeed in shooting a guy. Is it your case too? How much time did you survive? I survived only a few seconds, the big canon in front of me shot me.